Experimentation
by Anteyra
Summary: Trip decides to mess around with the warp engines... although the outcome is completely unexpected. Chapter eleven up! COMPLETE
1. The Test

Peace lay around all seven decks of the Starship Enterprise. The Armoury was almost completely empty, no one was in the mess hall, a couple of crewmen were up on the bridge, but most people were down in engineering. Most of the crew was down on Earth, for shore leave, visiting friends and family and so only the skeleton crew remained… Commander Charles Trip Tucker being one of them…. He had had a thought about how to increase the warp engines to make it go faster than warp 5… he was hoping to make it reach warp 6.

Once again Trip was going to mess around with the warp engine… for about the 7th time since their encounter with the Xindi. When would he learn to leave it to the experts and let them make the upgrades? But alas… Trip was far too proud of the object he cared most about on the ship, and if there was going to be any one who could make an earth ship go faster than warp 5… Trip wanted to be the one to do it and have is name down in the history books… however his name was already in the history books, only for a reason he'd rather not be remembered by… the first human male to ever become pregnant.

Captain Jonathan Archer had also stayed to make sure nothing happened to his ship while Trip was messing around with one of the most delicate parts. Even though Trip had assured Archer that nothing could possibly go wrong with his little upgrades, Archer still wanted to stay.

Having received a message from Trip saying he was ready, Archer made his way down to Engineering. it was a slightly eerie feeling with the fact that he didn't pass anyone as he made his way to his destination. But soon he arrived and opened the hatch that led into engineering.

"Everything ready?" Archer asked as he moved over to Trip. The chief engineer was looking at a data PADD he had just been handed by Crewman Rostov.

"Of course. Otherwise I wouldn't have asked you down here to witness it working." Replied a cheery Commander Tucker. As always he was optimistic.

"And you're sure nothing will go wrong?" Archer was sceptical, from his experience he knew nothing ever worked the first time you try.

"All my simulations have come up with the same result..." Trip paused for a second as he check a couple of things on the reactor's main control panels."Smooth running warp 6."

Archer looked at warp core with an uneasy look.

Trip had messed around with the engines a couple of times before, once landing himself in a coma for 10 days…Archer wasn't so sure that it was such a good idea to continue with this test. However if anything did go wrong, not that many people would be killed in the process.

"All right. Begin the test." Archer said. The engineering team, comprising of Trip, Rostov, Kelly, a couple of other random crewmen, took their positions.

"Ok. Increase power to the antimatter injectors." Trip said as he began monitoring the power output from the engines. Rostov was standing by one of the screens alongside the warp core.

"Systems aren't responding." Reported Rostov as suddenly his screen went offline. Trip looked round the corner at the crewman. He watched as the other screens went offline and went dark. Suddenly the whole of engineering was thrown into darkness.

As they looked around the darkness they all noticed a small light ontop of the reactor started to glow, and increase in size. a light that shouldn't really be there. It was bright white and a spherical shape.

"Everyone out!" Trip called as everyone made a dash for the door, not really wanting to find out what was going on. Trip and John were the last to leave.

"And you were saying nothing would go wrong?" Archer teased as Trip closed the hatch. He just looked at his captain with one of his 'sorry' looks, slightly shrugging his shoulders in the process.

They all stood and waited… waited for something to happen. After 10 minutes of standing along the corridor Trip decided to go back into engineering.

He carefully opened the hatch and moved in. Archer and the other engineers stayed outside. After a few seconds, Trip's voice called out.

"Captain!" Trip's voice sounded like that more of concern than in a way to say that everything was all right and it was safe for them to return into engineering. But they did anyway.

As Archer stepped through the hatch what he laid eyes on only confused him. It was something that he had not expected, and definitely after all the strange things that had happened on the ship… this was probably the weirdest of them all.


	2. Am i seeing double?

Archer moved forward and bent down to next to Trip, they both couldn't believe their eyes. They were both beginning to think this was a dream, but it all felt too real. The other officers carefully moved in and began to spread out to check things, but not after gazing at Trip and Archer for a few seconds.

Trip was looking at the form of an unconscious young human girl. He had his fingers placed up against her neck looking for a pulse.

"She's alive." He said, in pure disbelief. How on earth did she get there, lying unconscious on the floor next to the warp core in engineering? Both Trip and Archer knew that this was going to be one long day.

Looking at the girl, it was almost as if he was looking in a mirror. The girl looked almost exactly like Trip. The hair colour was the same, even if it was a little longer, and the nose was the same shape, skin colour, cheekbones, everything was the same as Trip's. Even a small birthmark on her left hip was exactly the same as the commander's.

Her clothes consisted of a long piece of thin lilac materiel tied around her waist like a skirt and a light blue t-shirt. She had no shoes or socks on and she looked rather cold.

"Let's get her to sickbay."

Trip nodded and picked her up. He carried her out of engineering, with his crew watching as he left.

Upon arriving in sickbay he gently laid her down on a bio-bed and watched as Phlox moved over and began talking scans. Archer and Trip stood back and waited for the results.

"This is a human female." He reported after a few minutes, carefully placing his scanner back onto a nearby table.

"Who is she?" Archer looked at some data displayed on the large screen.

"She is a near perfect replica of Commander Tucker."

"How can that be?" Trip asked, hardly moving.

"Her genetic profile is almost identical to yours Commander. What ever you were doing down in engineering obviously… created her."

"You're saying I've created a life form?" Trip was even more puzzled. Phlox just nodded his head in response. "How the hell did she end up with my DNA?"

"Probably from when you were thrown into a coma. Obviously you left a very small trace of skin, a hair, and your tests got mixed up with the sample and created it."

Trip sighed heavily putting his hand on his hips and then wiping one hand down his face. He looked at Archer who hadn't really said a lot. He was still trying to take all this information in.

"At least nothing went wrong." Trip paused as he noticed Archer's facial expression. It was one of disagreement… "It just didn't go according to plan." He added. He looked at the child. She couldn't have been more than 17 years old.

Archer then moved over to her and looked at her hard.

"She'll be ok… won't she?"

"From what I can see there's nothing wrong with her. She's in perfect health." Phlox moved and stood next to the captain. Trip stayed back and continued to try and figure out what was happening.

A groaning from the bed caused him to look over and all three noticed she was beginning to stir. She slowly opened her eyes and found herself starring into the eyes of Archer.

"Are you ok?" He asked as he helped her to sit up.

"Yeah, thanks Cap'n." She replied. Her voice had the same accent as Trip's, but how she knew who she was speaking to was even more of a confusion than it all had been before she woke up.

"Who are you?" Archer asked.

"My name's Trip."

Everyone just starred blankly.

"You're name can't be Trip… that's my name!" Trip now moved over to the bed standing the other side of Phlox.

"Why not? You're sister she was called Elizabeth and you have an Elizabeth Cutler working on this ship!" The young girl argued back. Her argument surprised all three men that she knew things about them and their ship.

"That's different. Trip is my nickname."

"Can we just please calm down."

"Sorry sir." Trip and the girl chimed back in perfect unison. She tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear and continued to watch Archer. The captain looked back and forth between the two of them a couple of times.

"Why don't we give you a different name?" Archer suggested as he gently placed a hand on her shoulder.

"But I like Trip." She replied.

"Then a name similar to Trip." Trip responded. "Err…. Trin for example…. No one else I know has that name."

The girl scrunched up her face in detest.

"Trif?" Phlox suggested. The girl continued to use her scrunched up face.

"Are you actually being serious about this?"

"Of course we are." Archer smiled a little bit, but it was obvious to him that she didn't fully believe him. "How about… Trix?"

The girl sat and thought for a second while she thought about the name Trix. "I guess it's different enough, but still the same. There wouldn't be any confusion with that name would there?"

"Not an obvious one I can see."

She looked at Archer with a slight smile on her face. "Ok. Trix it is then."

"Good. I'm glad we got that sorted. Is that all right with you Trip?"

"Sounds fine to me."

A growling noise was then heard and Trix placed a hand on her stomach.

"You hungry?"

she looked at Trip and nodded.

"Take her to the mess hall and find her some food. You may have to raid the galley." Archer watched as Trip helped the girl off the bed and they walked out together.

"What are we going to do with her?"

"I don't know." Archer replied and leftsickbay to go and sit up in his ready room.


	3. Pecan Pie

Trip and Trix entered the galley after having raided the mess hall finding no food there. Trip began to search through all the cupboards while Trix sat herself down at table. She watched as the engineer went through all the cupboards, saying "Ooh… didn't no chef had that here." as he found something new and interesting. "What the hell is that?" he said as he picked up a food bag from one of the shelves. "Cuisses de grenouilles?" he said reading off the label.

"Cuisses de grenouilles." Trix repeated in a perfect French accent, correcting the commander's pronunciation errors. "That's French for frogs legs." Trix called over. Trip looked at her and then at the packet with a disgusted look on his face. He then placed the packet back into its space and left it alone.

"What do you like to eat?" Trip called from a far corner… it then hit him that Trix had never actually eaten anything before as she had only been around for short time. "Sorry. I'm not thinking."

"I like what ever you like… after all … I am you." Trix replied with a sweet little smile. Trip smiled back at her. He opened another cupboard and found what he was looking for. He straightened up and turned to face Trix. In each hand he had a plate, with a fork carefully balanced at one edge. He placed one plate down in front of Trix and then sat down opposite her. She smiled upon seeing the food.

"I should've known… Pecan Pie."

Trip nodded. He was never going to get used to her knowing exactly what was going on. Together the two of them got stuck into their meal… not paying any attention to the Armoury officer who was standing in the door way looking in bewilderment at the young girl.

After a minute or two Trix looked up. "Good morning Lieutenant."

Trip turned on his chair and saw Lieutenant Malcolm Reed staring at them open mouthed. "Don't ask how she got here… cause I'm still not too clear on it myself."

"In that case I won't." Malcolm replied as he moved over to them.

"In that case may I?"

Trip nodded… hoping her explanation might clear up a couple of his confused brain cells. As Trix began to speak Malcolm he grew even more surprised as he listened to her accent… exactly like Trip's.

"Right… let me see… oh yeah… Trip as you know was doing an experiment with the warp drive… something went wrong… I think some space dust got into the intake manifolds and went through the system clogging up the plasma injector relays… That then caused an anti-matter injector failure, which led to the power failure in engineering. The electromagnetic field generated by the bussard collectors brought the hydrogen gas into the room. That then got mixed up with some of Trip's DNA, plasma radiation caused by the power failure… and that created me."

Both men were stunned.

"How do you know that? Even my team don't know that." Trip stated. He had completely ignored his pie whilst Trix had been speaking.

"I don't know. I just do." She replied. She shrugged and took another bite of the pie. Very soon Trix finished her slice. "Can I have that if you're not hungry."

Trip just nodded. He really didn't know what to say about her.

Trix leant over the table and pulled the second plate towards her. Picking up her fork she dug it into the sweet tasting dessert.

"Do you have a name?"

"Trix." She replied and devoured what was left of Trip's pie in record time.

After a couple of hours Trix, Trip and Malcolm had been called to the command centre. Archer had been speaking with Admiral Forrest about their new friend. As the three of them entered Archer was already waiting for them, pacing back and forth across the room the other side of the table… Three pairs of eyes watched him as they waited for him to say something… but Archer stayed silent. They could easily tell that there was not good news. Malcolm had his arms folded across his chest. Trix and Trip were standing in exactly the same position… with their arms by their sides.

"What's the bad news Cap'n?" Trip finally asked after a few seconds.

"Starfleet want Trix for examination."

At the mention of that Malcolm unfolded his arms.

"What?" Anger was easily detectable on Trip's voice, and also in his blue eyes. "What the hell do they wanna do that for?"

"I don't know Trip. All I've been ordered to do is to get Trix down to the Starfleet science labs by tomorrow afternoon."

The two men and Trix starred blankly. Trix had only just been created and now she was going to be taken away from them.

"So I'm just gonna be a lab rat?" She asked. Archer nodded his head.

"I can't go against their orders. If there was anything I could do to keep you here then I would do my best to do that… but there isn't anything I can do."

Trix sadly looked down at the floor.

Without any warning all the lights suddenly went off in the command centre and they were thrown into complete darkness. After a few seconds the lights came back up, showing the three men frantically looking round them for any indication of what had just happened. Malcolm stared at the space where Trix had stood moments before.

"Trix!"

Archer, Trip and Malcolm all knew what had happened…

The Suliban.


	4. The Search

"Trix!" Malcolm called as he searched around the room. But he knew it was hopeless… she wasn't there. All three men knew that the Suliban had taken her. But why? How on earth could they know that she was on board… she had only been around a couple of hours.

They quickly left the command centre and entered the bridge trough the situation area.

"Captain! I've just detected a Suliban vessel!" Travis called as he frantically pressed buttons on his console

"Follow it!" Archer quickly moved forward so he was standing behind the ensign's chair, watching over his shoulders.

"I can't sir." Travis replied as he slightly shook his head. "They've gone."

Archer stared at the screen in anger. He had just managed to catch a glimpse of the vessel on the screen before they had engaged their cloaking device. He then turned to T'Pol. "Find their warp trail and follow it."

"May I ask why we are to follow it?"

However Archer ignored her question and turned to Hoshi. "Recall all key personelle back to the ship." He then turned back to T'Pol. "Just do it!" and with that he left the bridge. Malcolm had moved over to his seat.

"What, may, I ask is the trouble?" T'Pol asked again, hoping this time either Trip or Malcolm would respond. Trip took a bit of a sigh and explained the situation to the crew on the bridge.

Once he had finished his explanation the crew just stared blankly at their posts… what they had just heard was a little odd… and why the Suliban had kidnapped Trix was even more confusion to them.

"T'Pol any luck yet?" Trip asked as he moved closer to T'Pol's work station.

"Not yet. The decay rate of the warp plasma has made it near impossible."

"Keep trying."

T'Pol nodded her head and continued to work.

Trip turned around so he was facing Malcolm Reed. He sighed a little and rubbed his hand down his face as he thought about the next move. A voice from behind him and to the left made him turn round the face Ensign Sato.

"Sir… all key personelle are on board."

Trip slowly nodded his head. "Thanks Hoshi." He paused for a second. "Contact the Cap'n… tell him of our situation. I'll be down in engineering… or maybe sickbay."

Hoshi nodded her head and began to work. Malcolm and T'Pol watched as Trip headed for the turbolift and left the bridge.

T'Pol continued to work at her station trying to identify the warp trail and determine where the Suliban had gone, hoping that the warp trail would disintegrate before she had the chance to analyse it. After a couple of hours she believed she had finally worked it out.

"Where are they headed?" Archer asked as he moved away from his ready room and across the bridge to T'Pol's station.

"I do not know exactly where they are headed as our star charts have not mapped anything in that direction. At least we know which way they are headed."

Archer turned to Travis. "Set a course Travis. Maximum warp." He watched as his helmsman slightly nodded his head and began pressing the buttons on his console.

"Our maximum warp is not as much as the Suliban's." T'Pol called over. Archer turned so he was facing his science officer.

"I'm aware of the T'Pol! But at least we'll be getting somewhere." He paused for a second. "Keep scanning everywhere for any vessels or planets which would indicate what they're doing with her."

T'Pol nodded her head slightly.

Archer looked around the bridge. "Where's Trip?"

"He said he would be down in engineering or down in sickbay." Replied the Vulcan.

"Which?" Archer asked as he sighed a little.

T'Pol worked at her station for a few seconds. "His quarters." She reported.

Archer left the bridge not saying another word to anyone. He made his way down to C-Deck where Trip's quarters were situated. He got to the door and pressed the chime button. He heard a voice from inside.

"Come in."

Archer pressed another button and entered the room.

Trip was sitting on his bed with his head in his hands. He hadn't turned the lights on so Archer put out his hand and pressed the light switch. The lights slowly came on giving Trip the chance to let his eyes adjust to the change.

"You ok Trip?" Archer asked as he moved forward, slightly looking around the room as he did.

Trip relaxed his arms and let them fall in his lap. He turned his head so he was looking at his captain, his friend. "I don't know. I've only known that girl for a coupl'a hours. I don't know why I'm so worried about her."

"I do." He paused for a second as he looked at Trip. He was waiting for an explanation. "She's you. You created her. So really in effect you're worrying about yourself."

Trip nodded. He knew Archer was right.

"Plus also she's a young kid. I think anyone would be worried about a young kid who has just been kidnapped by a hostile alien species."

Trip nodded some more. He was glad he had captain who was also a great friend of his. "Thanks Cap'n."

"You hungry?"

Trip shook his head." Not really."

"In that case let's get to the mess hall. I'm sure that once you see what there you'll feel hungry."

Trip smiled a little as his friend's reasoning. Archer sure did know how to make him feel a bit happier. "Yes sir." Trip replied and stood. Up together the two men left the room and headed for food.


	5. Kidnapped

Opening her eyes carefully she looked around her… the smell what not what she was used to … it was slightly musty and wasn't too pleasant… but she was going to have to get use to it… she could tell.

Trix carefully stood up, leaning against the wall for support until her head gained balance and she was able to stand on her own. Looking around she took note of her surroundings. She was in a fairly small room, about 4 meters squared. Up against one wall there was a bed, and opposite the bed was a door, with a panel on the right hand side. She moved over to it and inspected the symbols on each of the buttons, however she didn't recognise them. There were no windows for her to look out of so she had no idea if she was on a vessel or on a planet.

She placed her left hand on her head as a headache began to sink in… the last thing she remembered was being in the command centre next to Trip and then everything went black. She had only come to three conclusions… 1. She had been sedated. 2. She had been stunned. 3. She had been hit over the head and knocked unconscious. Each of them were just as plausible as the others, but it was more likely that the third one was the answer as she felt a small lump on the back of her head through her hair.

Gazing around the room she took note of a tray of food placed near the bed. Slowly she moved over and picked the tray up, placing it on the bed and sitting down. Once she was seated she placed the tray on her lap and smelled it. It didn't smell too bad, although it didn't look too pleasant. She took a small bite out of… something… and chewed it. It actually tasted better than it smelled and looked.

Just as she finished the bowl of food the door to her room was opened. 3 Suliban soldiers walked in, each wielding a plasma riffle. Each of the yellow faces with black-like speckles was all too familiar to her. As each moved in she could tell they were glaring at her. What they wanted her for though was not what she wanted to find out.

Seeing them walk in she quickly placed the tray beside her on the bed. She carefully looked at each of them men waiting for one of them to move or speak.

A fourth Suliban walked into the room. He moved right up to Trix and starred down at her. "I hope you're comfortable." He said. He voice was slightly deep and wasn't too pleasant.

"Wha'd'ya want with me?" Trix asked as she starred into his eyes, hoping she would get an answer. A small sudden jolt told Trix that they were on a ship, and had docked with someone else.

"I'm pretty sure you'll find out soon enough." He reached forward a hand to grab Trix… however the young girl had other plans and she wasn't going to go anywhere with the Suliban.

Quick as lightning she pushed away his hand. The, clenching her hand into a fist she drew her arm back and punched him round the face with all her strength. He fell to the floor with a heavy thud. Immediately two of the other guards rush forward and they each grab her arms, preventing her from attacking their commanding officer again. She struggled, trying to get out of their grasp so she could get at their commander again, but they were too strong for her and all her attempts failed.

After regaining himself from Trix's attack the Suliban commander straightened up, and moved to stand right in front of her. He grabbed her chin and stared evilly into her eyes. He could now tell that she was scared and he smiled a little.

"You'll regret doing that." He let go of her chin.

"En'erprise will come lookin' for me… They won't give up without a fight!"

The Suliban laughed slightly as he listened to Trix's pathetic attempts at scaring him.

"But as you should know, as soon as we departed from Enterprise we engaged our cloaking device…. They'll never find you." He smiled as he finished his sentence, and waited to see what excuse the child would come up with next, hoping it would be better than the one she had just used.

"They can still try and isolate your warp trail… they can follow you that way!"

He shook his head in slight disbelief at how badly she was trying to save her life and frighten him…. But it wasn't going to work.

"You still have a lot to learn about life, Trix."

Hearing her name being said slightly surprised her. She was only a few hours old and already these Suliban knew a lot about her. She watched as the Suliban commander sharply turned on his heels and headed for the door. With a wave of his hands the other Suliban followed. Dragging a struggling Trix along with them. She knew that she had no chance of escaping them on her own.

As the last person left the room the door slid closed.


	6. Breakdown

Captain Archer was slowly pacing back and forth on the bridge in the situation area. Waiting to hear any news from any of his crew… and news of where the Suliban cell ship was. It had been 8 hours since she was taken. Trip was standing with him. He didn't know what to say. Tension was high among the 40 odd crew on board, consisting mainly of Security and engineer personelle.

It wasn't long before a bleep and a voice over the COMM system alerted them.

"Phlox to Captain Archer."

Archer quickly moved to the nearest panel and pressed the button to speak. "Go ahead"

"I need to see you in sickbay immediately." Phlox's voice was slightly deeper than usual.

"I'm on my way." Archer replied. He looked at Trip with a puzzled expression. There was something about Phlox's voice that told them what he needed to see them about was not very good news. His voice sounded slightly grim and morbid, although not being voice experts, it was hard to tell. They left via turbolift and soon were standing in sickbay next to Phlox. "What's the problem?"

"I've been analysing Trix's biosigns, and cellular structure. This…" He moved over to a screen and pressed a button. A picture of lots of cells all looking healthy and undamaged appeared. "Was taken when she first came in here. After that I placed a bio transmitter on her so I could monitor her biosigns wherever she was. The range is fairly limited though… to about one and a half light-years and about and hour ago I lost the signal."

It definitely wasn't sounding good to either of the two senior officers.

"Meaning they're more than one and a half light years away." Trip replied.

Phlox pressed the button again. The first picture minimised and a second picture took its place. "This was the last transmission I received."

Trip and Archer looked at the screen. Most of the cells in the picture were damaged and there were obvious signs of viral infections.

"What's happenin' to her?" Trip looked at the ship's physician, his face full of worry about what was happening to his new friend, his creation… his daughter.

"Her cells are slowly breaking down." Phlox replied, his head twitching back every now and then as he spoke.

"Why? Cause she's not really human… cause the Suliban are doin' something to her?" Trip really wanted to know. He cared about her a lot, like a dedicated father cares about a vulnerable daughter.

"No. I believe that she is connected to you Commander. Because her body was created using a strand of your hair your cells are linked together, bonded. The further away she is the bond becomes weaker and her cells break down more and more." Phlox replied.

"You mean she can't be too far away from me otherwise this'll happen to her and eventually she'll die?"

Phlox nodded his head. "Yes."

It was Archer's turn to ask a question. "How long would you say she has?"

"If we don't find her soon I would estimate around 24 hours. 30 at the most. If the cells continue to break down at the same rate, but the further they get away from us the quicker the cells may breakdown."

Trip and Archer hang their heads in worry.

"Trip, is there any chance you can give us more power to the warp engines?"

"Only by the experiment, but we need to drop outta warp to do that! And we don't really have the time to do that." Trip's argument was pretty firm, but Archer had other plans.

"If we drop out of warp and the experiment works there'll be more chance of finding her." Archer moved over to a panel." Archer to the bridge. Take us out of warp."

"Aye sir." Came the reply from the space boomer.

"You'd better get to Engineering."

Trip nodded his head once. "Aye sir." Trip answered and left sickbay, slightly reluctant to try the experiment now.

Archer watched as his best friend left the room. He then looked back at Phlox. "Tell me if you find out anything more."

"Of course Captain."

Archer nodded and left, heading for the bridge.

Once he was left alone Phlox continued to analyse the scans, to try and determine if the cells would start to break down faster than they currently were.

In engineering, everyone was at their posts ready to try the experiment, Trip standing on the plat form right next to the warp reactor.

"All right. Rostov, keep a check on the warp field regulator… and if any space dust gets into the intake manifolds get ready to purge 'em."

"Aye sir." Rostov called back. He was standing by a screen near one of the hatches. Both hands ready in case of an emergency and he needed to do his part. He brushed one hand through his hair to keep it out of his way and went back into his position.

"Ok. Increase power to the anti-matter injectors." Trip ordered. Crewman Kelly began to increase the power. She was standing next to Trip.

"Power is increasing." She reported. At least this time the systems weren't failing.

"Purging the intake manifolds!" Rostov called from his station and immediately began to press buttons. The information on his screen soon told him all dust was removed. "Intake manifolds are clear."

"Good!" Trip monitored the engine as progress was made to increase their speed. "Increase the power a bit more." Sweat was beginning to show on his forehead. He reached up one arm and wiped his sleeve across his brow to dry it.

Kelly obeyed, and then watched Trip. His facial expressions showing that he was concentrating hard on the target ahead. The warp reactor began to glow even more as the anti-matter mix was increased. The sound of the warp engine began to increase slightly, but it didn't bother them too much.

"Tucker to the bridge."

"Go ahead Trip." Archer voice responded after he pressed the button on the arm of his chair.

"I think we're ready to go. Bring her up to warp 4.9 to begin with."

Reed looked at Archer upon hearing this. After a brief look at him and then at Hoshi he returned to looking at his own viewer at his station, shifting nervously in his chair as he did. Travis and Hoshi also glanced at each other. They were both thinking and hoping that this would turn out all right.

"You heard the man Travis. 4.9" Archer looked at the helmsman with a slight nod as he shifted in his chair to make himself more comfortable.

"Aye sir." Travis began to work, slowly brining the ship into warp and then up to 4.9.

At 4.9 the ship began to shake violently. Some people had to hold on to bars and their stations to keep themselves from falling over.

"Compress the plasma stream!" Trip ordered, and Crewman Andrews began to work. Soon the ship began to stop shaking and things went slightly quiet for moment as everyone waited to make sure things were smooth.

"Keep bringing her up slowly, Travis, till warp 6."

"Aye sir." And Travis began to work even more. As the ship increased speed Travis continued to call out what warp they were at. The ship didn't shake again and soon they were running smoothly at warp 6.

Everyone was quiet for a couple of minutes, daring to breathe or utter a single word

Nothing exploded, nothing started to shake, no warning sounds, nothing. Trip looked at Kelly with a smile on his face.

"We did it!" He suddenly shouted as they clapped hands together in celebration. Up on the bridge Hoshi, Travis and the crewmen in the situation area, all began to cheer, although Malcolm just smiled at everyone, maintaining the British air of dignity. Around the rest of the ship cheers were heard. A wide smile crosses Archer's face.

"I knew you could do it Trip." Archer turned to look at T'Pol. "Keep scans running for Trix and the Suliban."

"Yes sir." T'Pol replied. Instantly Archer could sense the happiness in T'Pol's voice. Archer got out of his chair and headed down to engineering.

They were travelling faster than the ship had ever gone before. This was certainly going to go down in history for Trip. And now they were on their way to find the Suliban and their friend, Trix.

It was a race against time to find them, a race to save her, and stop whatever the Suliban were planing.


	7. Truths

Trix was dragged along corridors for what seemed like hours, but in reality it was just a couple of minutes. Her skin had begun to peel away from her face and she looked very pale, her eyes were the only part of her body that was keeping colour. They were still their sharp blue colour.

They soon came to a door, which, when a Suliban pressed a button, slid back to reveal a short corridor with another door at the end. The light in the corridor was bright and it took Trix a few seconds for her eyes to adjust to the sudden brightness. The rest of the place that she had been in the lights had been dim. They walked along and the second door opened. They stepped through the doorway and Trix found herself in a large room. On her right there was a platform and a streak of light coming down from the ceiling. In the centre of the light was a dark shadowy figure.

Trix was pulled along to stand in front of the platform where the figure would be able to see her more clearly.

"Welcome." The figure said, his voice slightly distorted. Trix knew who he was. He was the Suliban Cabal leader, a man from the future.

"What do you want with me?" Trix's voice was shaky as she was loosing strength. She felt as though she could loose consciousness at any time. The only thing that was keeping her standing were the two Suliban guards holding her arms and stopping her from attacking their commander again. Even though she wanted to, she didn't have the strength to do it.

"Information." The figure's voice sounded nearly emotionless, like a Vulcan's, a species that Trix knew a lot about, especially their Science officer, T'Pol.

"About what?" the young girl kept her eyes fixed on him, trying to make out what he looked like, but it was no use.

"Your ship. The Enterprise. You have the knowledge of the ship and its crew." The figure replied, keeping a still posture.

Trix swallowed and gave her response. "I ain't tellin' you nothin'." She shook her head slightly as she spoke, her hair gently waved with the movement.

"We don't want to harm you Trix. We just want the information. Give it to us and you won't be harmed."

"And I'm tellin' you… I'd rather die than give anythin' to you." Trix added emphasis onto the word 'die' as she spoke, her voice was filled with anger and tension.

The Suliban commander that Trix had previously attacked moved forward ready for commands.

"So be it. I had hoped that you would co-operate with us than reduce us to using such methods on a child of your age." The figure continued to stay still, his words bringing a shiver down the girl's spine.

With no further words Trix was dragged out. Her strength leaving her even more as they made their way along more corridors and finally to a room. In the centre of the room stood a chair. The two Suliban guards threw her onto it and then strapped down her wrists to the arms of the chair. She didn't have then energy to resist them and just watched as they tied her down. On the headrest of the chair another strap was pulled around her forehead so that she could hardly move, any changes of escape were now completely gone.

To one corner there was a table, with small instruments and object laid out. The Suliban Commander looked at one of his men and nodded his head. The soldier picked up a hypospray and moved over to the chair. He then placed the hypospray up against her neck and FIZZ was heard as the substance entered her body and began to run around her bloodstream.

No one knew what it would do to her, but the only thing they hoped was that it wouldn't kill her before they had gathered the necessary information they wanted about the NX-01.

Trix could feel the substance beginning to work on her brain. She began to feel drowsy and no longer had any control of what she was going to do next. She could hear herself saying deep in the back of her mind not to tell them anything, but the answers to the Suliban's questions just came out and there was no way should could stop herself.

"You have been very helpful my dear." The Suliban Commander finally said once he had all the information he wanted. He straightened up and faced his soldiers "Take her back to her cell, but be gentle with her."

The Suliban unstrapped Trix from the chair as the Commander left to give the information to the man from the future. They carefully helped her out of the chair and slowly took her along to the cell. To Trix it seemed like forever to get to the cell. All she could think about was what she had just told the Suliban. She had told them how to destroy Enterprise, and with their enhancements of camouflage it would be an easy task to complete. She was going to be the cause of the destruction of the Starship Enterprise.

More of her skin was beginning to peel away from the rest of her body and her complexion was even paler, she was almost completely white, like a ghost. Her muscles nearly completely broken down, her skin was loose and she looked like an old woman. Her focusing had become very hard and could hardly see anything. Her eyes had begun to loose their colour and were now a soft grey-blue. Her hair was also loosing its colour and wasn't the wonderful blonde-brown colour it once was, but now it was pale, beginning to turn white. Her hearing was also effected and most words sounded muffled to her. She could hardly make out what the Suliban were saying, but she made a guess that they were orders.

After just a few minutes they reached her cell. She could just about hear the swish of the door as it opened. She felt herself being carefully laid down her bed. Her eyes drooped slowly. She tried her best to open them again, but all strength had let her. Sleep had finally taken its toll on her. The Suliban quietly left the room, the door closing gently behind them. Now, they didn't really care if Trix died, they had no more use for her, but they weren't going to sink so low as to kill her in cold blood.


	8. Escape

Phlox was feeding his distraught animals. The reptile was squealing in his cage, knowing that the ship was travelling faster than it normally did. He was far too afraid to even feed his bat, it was flapping around in its cage so much that it would escape as soon as the doctor would open the lid.

BEEEP! BEEP!

Phlox turned round to look at the monitor. It was silent.

He placed the lid of the cage back and put the food down on a work top, then moved over to the screen, watching it closely.

Nothing. Phlox waited for a couple of minutes, but still nothing happened. He was about to turn back to feeding his animals when he heard it again.

BEEEP! BEEP! A long and a short sound came from the speakers. A smile came across Phlox's face and he immediately headed for a COMM panel, the beeps continuing in the background as he spoke.

"Phlox the to the Bridge." His voice was full of urgency.

"Go ahead!" Came the voice of the captain.

"I am receiving Trix's bio transmitter signal. We are less that one and a half light years away from her."

Archer looked at T'Pol upon hearing this. "Take up out of warp!"

The ship slowly lost speed and soon it was just floating in space.

"Sir! I'm picking up a Suliban Vessel. It matches the hull configuration of the one that attacked us and took Trix!" Lieutenant Reed reported looking at his scans. Archer looked at Reed.

"Set a course! Ready all weapons! Hull plating."

Everyone complied and set to work. It wasn't long before Enterprise arrived at the co-ordinates and saw the vessel on the view screen. Hoshi went to open a COMM signal with the vessel, but instead it engaged in combat with Enterprise. Weapons fire began going all over the place. Some hitting the ships, others missing and disappearing into space.

On the bridge of the Enterprise it was chaos as the Suliban's weapons were doing more damage than the Starfleet officers could achieve.

"Hull plating down to 64" Malcolm cried out as he continued to fire his weapons.

"I believe I have located Trix." The calm Vulcan voice of the science officer called out over the sound of chaos.

"Where?"

"Somewhere on the 4th deck."

Archer smiled and turned to Reed. The Armoury officer quickly stood up and left the bridge, another person taking his place at the tactical station.

&&&&&

A sudden shudder woke Trix from her sleep. She sat up slightly looking around her. She looked down at he arm and noticed it's colour and that the skin was almost fully healed. A smile came across her face as she realised what was happening.

"Enterprise!" She said. Another shudder made her almost loose her balance as she was just leaning on her arm. Metal groaned and creaked, unused to being battered by weapon's fire.

Biting her lip she began to think what she could do. She looked at the door and saw the control panel to one side. Moving up to it she felt around the edges and found she could just about get her fingernails behind it. With all the strength she had she pulled the panel off. Sparks flew as the electrical current had no where to go and the circuit was broken. A very small flame burned as well. At the same time a loud click noise sounded telling Trix that the door locks had released. She placed her hands at the edge of the door and began to pull. It suddenly flew open and Trix was staring into the face of a Suliban Guard.

Quick as a flash Trix began to fight him, punches and kicks were thrown and she was driven further back into the cell. Trix managed to avoid and block most of her opponents' thrusts, but the guard was just as good. He managed to grab and threw her against the wall. She landed on the ground with a heavy thud. She quickly regained her senses and was able to avoid the next move her opponent tried.

Another shudder as a torpedo hit the Suliban vessel knocked Trix onto the ground as she lost her balance. The guard then saw his chance, while she was unprepared he disappeared. Trix became very alert, keeping her back up against the wall. Her eyes scanning madly across the room, but there was no sign of any movement.

Slowly she edged her way towards the door and once she was close enough she turned and darted out, running along the corridor. She wasn't shot, hit or anything. It's as if the Suliban didn't know what she had just down. She turned her head for a second to check he wasn't following her and then BUMP!

The smacked right into the guard. He grabbed her by her clothes and threw her against the wall. She collapsed on the floor in an unconscious heap. The guard bent down to pick her up and take her back tp her cell, but before he could lay another finger on her and beam of red laser struck him and he fell to one side unconscious.

Lieutenant Reed quickly made his way over o the child.

"Trix?" he put his fingers on her neck to check for a pulse and found a strong beat. "Trix, come on wake up."

The young girl began to stir, her open opened and closed a bit as she was dazed. She then stared at Malcolm. a smile came across her face. "Malcolm!" she threw her arms around him and embraced him in a hug.

"Are you all right?"

"I am now." She replied, still hugging Malcolm. She then pulled out of it and looked into his eyes. Her smile had gone. "But Enterprise has to get away from the Suliban."

"I can't argue with you there." Reed began to stand up, but Trix pulled him back down to the floor.

"There's a reason. I gave 'em the codes for the auto-destruct sequence."

Malcolm looked at her, staring in disbelief. He knew she was being serious. "Why did you that?"

"I had no choice. They drugged me, I tried to stop but I could, I was so weak."

Malcolm looked away for a second and then back Trix, looking into her eyes only to see they were clouding over with tears. Malcolm stood up and held out a hand to help Trix up. "Then we'd better leave quickly."

All Trix could do was nod her head. Together they moved off down the corridors in search of Trip.


	9. Murder

As they turned a corner, Trix began to get an odd feeling tingling down her spine. She stopped walking as she tried to make sense of why she was feeling odd. Half of her was thinking it was something to do with healing, but half of her was sure it was something else.

Malcolm noticed she'd stopped and turned to her. "Are you all right?" He asked, gently placing a hand on her shoulder. He was slightly concerned it was something to do with Trip, knowing the two were somehow connected.

"I don't know." Trix looked into Reed's eyes and shook her head slightly.

Suddenly a yellow hand with black speckles appeared around Malcolm's throat. He gargled and he was strangled from behind. Trix was thrown to the ground as two Suliban locked in combat with the British Armoury Officer. One anchoring Malcolm down by strangling him while the other threw punches at him face.

As Malcolm was pulled and pushed around the corridor he lost his grip on his phase pistol. It fell to the ground and clanged on the hard floor. He flipped the Suliban that was strangling him, to the ground and made a quick dash for his phase pistol. However he had forgotten about his second opponent who punched him again and kicked the weapon away from Malcolm's reach. It skidded across the floor and stopped just short of where Trix lay.

Once again Malcolm was being strangled and punched. His face getting bruised with every punch.

The young girl scrambled to the Reed's weapon and picked it up. She aimed it at one of the soldiers and fired. The beam narrowly missed reed's head and struck the forehead of the soldier behind him. He fell to the floor with a load THUD. The second Suliban seized his chance. He clenched his fist and hit Malcolm squarely on his lower jaw. With the force of the blow Malcolm fell back and hit the floor. He laid there in a slight daze, sub—consciously wiggling his jaw around to make sure it wasn't broken or severely damaged, and so far it seemed to be all right.

Trix fired again, hitting the second Cabal squarely between the shoulder blades. He too fell to the floor with a THUD.

Regaining his senses Malcolm stood up. He inspected the two bodies, lying still around him. One flat on his back, the other one lying on his front. His raised his eyebrows, twitching his head to one side and then lowered them.

"Are you all right?" Trix called as she lowered the weapon, looking Malcolm's wounds, he had a fairly blackened eye and his lip was bleeding, blood dripping down his chin and falling onto his uniform, staining it.

"Yeah thanks." He coughed to clear his throat, placing the back of his hand on his lip, feeling the blood trickling down. Malcolm's voice was hoarse. He massaged his throat with one hand. He then turned his attention back to the bodies. A sudden clatter from down the corridor forced him to turn his head sharply.

The phase pistol that was once in Trix's hand was now lying on the floor, the young girl looked like she was about to cry. Malcolm quickly rushed over to her and bent down. "Trix? What's wrong?"

"I've killed them! I've become a murderer!" A tear fell down her face. She hadn't noticed it when she had first picked up the phase pistol but after he had shot both the Suliban she realised that it had been set to 'kill', something she didn't want to do, but now she had.

"You did what you had to do." There was a short pause as Malcolm watched a couple more tears fall down Trix's face. He sighed and picked up the weapon. He then helped Trix to her feet. Together they continued their search for Commander Tucker.

The pair walked around for a couple of minutes, but there was no sign of Trip. They were starting to wonder if he had been captured by the Suliban. They were about to turn a corner when a familiar voice was heard behind them.

"Hey! Malcolm!" Trip ran along the corridor to catch them up. "You two ok?" he asked looking back and forth between Trix and Malcolm, inspecting their wounds.

"We're fine, but we've got to get back to the ship." Malcolm said, only slight relief at seeing his friend was in his voice, more was worry for Enterprise.

"I can't argue with that. The sooner we get away from here the better." Trip replied as he massaged the back ofhis neck. Reed noticed a small cut on the Commander's cheek, indicating hat he had been in a fight.

"It's not that sir."

Trip looked at Reed with a puzzled face. "Then what is it?"

"Auto destruct sequence." Trix managed to say before collapsing in tears. She fell to the floor, dragging Reed down with her.

"She gave them the codes." Malcolm added, bringing Trix into a light hug.

Trip looked at them blankly. He knelt down on the floor next to Trix and gently placed a hand on her shoulder. "A truth serum?"

All Trix could do was nod her head.

Footsteps were heard at the other end of the corridor. Reed quickly readied his weapon, waiting to shoot. After a few seconds three soldiers appeared.

Reed began madly shooting at the enemy, hoping to hit them. Upon hearing the shots Trix quickly cowered up against the wall with Trip protecting her, helping to move her out of any line of fire.

Two of the soldiers went down from Reed's hail of discharge, the third quickly hid and began to fire back at Reed, who immediately ducked out of the way of the Suliban's shots.


	10. Forgotten Fears

Ducking behind the corner to avoid the weapons fire was getting a little tiring for Malcolm Reed, he really wanted to shoot something, but his opponent hiding the other end of the corridor was proving to be a difficult target for the British Armoury Officer. There was a short pause in the firing. Malcolm risked looking round and couldn't see the Suliban anywhere.

"Careful Malcolm." Trip warned, watching his friend carefully. Trip noted that Malcolm nodded slightly, meaning he had heard his friend.

Malcolm's eyes scanned the corridor. He then saw a slight disturbance and fired his weapon. After a few seconds there was a thud and the Suliban fell on the floor. Malcolm moved over to check he was down. He then moved back to Trip and Trix. "We'd better get back to the ship!"

Trip nodded his head. He opened up the pocket on his sleeve and took out his communicator flipping it open he began to speak. "Tucker to Enterprise. Lock onto my position. There's three of us."

Within seconds the three of them were transported out. They materialised on the transporter pad along a corridor on their ship. Trip jumped up and moved over to a COMM panel. "Tucker to the bridge." There was silence for a few seconds. "Tucker to Cap'n Archer." There was still silence. He looked at Malcolm who nodded his head and all three entered the turbolift. Trip pressed the button for the bridge, the doors closed and the lift moved up.

When the doors reopened revealing the bridge all they could see was Travis, Hoshi, T'Pol, Archer and a couple of other crewman lying on the floor, or in their seats, unconscious. Carefully Reed moved out, his weapon armed and ready to fire. Trip followed his weapon also poised, he had also got Trix by the wrist, carefully bringing her onto the bridge. She was still in a state of shock.

There seemed to be nothing. If the Suliban were still on the bridge then they would have attacked by now.

T'Pol was lying half on the floor and her legs caught around her chair. Trip smiled a little at seeing the position she was in, slightly wishing he had a camera, but he knew there were more important things than trying to make Sub-Commander T'Pol look like an idiot.

"Cap'n?" Trip asked moving over to the man slumped in his chair, hoping to wake him up. But he didn't move. Trip pressed two fingers on Archer's neck to find a pulse, and found a strong one.

"Commander!" The voice from the Englishman sounded concerned and worried.

Trip looked up to see Reed by a computer screen. The display on the screen was not a good sight.

It was a countdown. The Suliban had started the Auto destruct sequence. Quickly Trip rushed over and inputted his code to stop it.

"Now yours Malcolm!"

Malcolm did the same. "We still need one more sir, preferably the captains!" they looked at Archer, but he was still unconscious, there was no way they would be able to wake him up and get him to give the code in the amount of time they had left. Trix was sitting on the floor next to the chair. Trip looked back at the screen.

45 seconds.

45 seconds left till the ship would be destroyed.

"Trix!"

The young girl didn't move. Trip went over to her and bent down in front of her. "Trix? We need the captain's code to stop the sequence."

"I've become a murderer!" She cried looking in the blue eyes of Commander Tucker.

"You'll be even more of a murderer if you don't give us the code! You're the only chance we have to stop it!" Trip placed both his hands on her shoulders to try and calm her down, but it wasn't working very much.

"I didn't mean to kill them!" Trix's tears fell from her cheek and splashed on the floor.

Trip shook her violently a couple of times. "Trix!" Trip's voice scared her as he shouted. " Please, forget the Suliban for now and give us the code!"

"I don't remember it."

"30 seconds left!" Malcolm called looking over his shoulder.

"Trix please, hurry!"

Trix began to frantically search her mind for the code to save the lives of everyone on board. "Alpha six, four Charlie nine…" She stopped for a second. After typing in most of the code Malcolm looked back at her waiting for the last one. "I don't remember the last number!"

It was at that moment the Suliban decided to show themselves. "And you never will!" they said as they prepared to fire, but Lieutenant Reed was ready for them.

Malcolm quickly picked up his weapon and fired at two of them, but in the process Malcolm was hit and fell on the floor unconscious. Trip then attacked and engaged in a hand to hand battle with the last standing of the Cabal intruders.

"Trix hurry!" Trip called and he desperately tried to win his battle. But against the Suliban it wasn't easy. Punches were thrown left and right from the engineer and the Suliban.

"One!" Trix called triumphantly as she managed to remember the last number.

"Get to the computer!" Trip cried and he was punched round the face.

Instantly Trix forgot her fears and focused more on the objective… to save the ship.

She scrambled to her feet to save the ship. The Suliban turned to fire his weapon, leaving his back undefended. Trip saw what he was doing and jumped on him, pulling the weapon out of line from Trix. The weapon was fired. Trix jumped to get out of the way, and narrowly missed the plasma bullet as it came hurtling towards her.

She heavily landed on the floor, sliding a few centimetres, but quickly gained her senses.

5 seconds

As fast as she could Trix got up…

3 seconds

Pressed the last digit…

2 seconds

And hit enter…

1 second

Trix watched waiting for it to change, either to zero, or to something different. Nothing happened. She was breathing heavily, her hand still hovering over the keyboard.

Trip managed to give one blow to the head of the Suliban and he fell on the floor unconscious. He breathed heavily watching the screen. "Talk about close endings." He wiped away sweat from his brow with his sleeve.

Trix turned to face him and let out a huge sigh. Trip moved to stand next to her and brought her into a hug. He also gave a light kiss on her forehead. "I knew you could do it."

The ship was saved.

Only Trip and Trix were ever going to know how it felt to be so close to dying like that.


	11. A Happy Ending

Trip and Trix stayed hugging on the bridge until they heard a groan. Trip looked around and noticed that it the groaning was coming from the figure slumped in the Captain's chair. The Engineer moved over.

"Cap'n?" Trip said waiting to see if Archer would wake up any more.

The captain's eyes scrunched up and the released as he opened his eyes, letting them adjust to the brightness. "Trip? What are you doing back here I thought I sent you and Malcolm to find Trix."

Trip smiled a little. "We found her sir." Trip looked at his young friend and Archer followed his glance. Archer's face grew into a smile at the sight of her.

"Are you all right Trix?"

"I'm fine sir." The young girl replied as she nodded her head. She was rubbing her hands together nervously, trying to ignore her fears for now. With Archer now awake she was beginning to relax.

Another groaning sound was heard, this time closer to Trix. She looked around and noticed that by her feet Malcolm was beginning to stir. She bent down to him. As he woke up he nodded to her and Trix helped him into a seated position.

Trix had been standing in front of the countdown screen and as she bent down Archer had a clear view of it. Like lightning Archer got out of his chair and moved over closer to it.

"What the hell has happened here?"

"Suliban activated the self destruct sequence. We stopped it just in time."

Archer turned to Trip. "How did they get the codes…" Archer paused he needed no answer. "Trix." The captain noted that Trip nodded.

"I couldn't stop myself sir. Truth serum."

"I understand." Archer sighed heavily as he looked around the bridge. His eyes fell on the three Suliban lying near the front. "Better get them to the Brig."

"Aye sir." A groggily Malcolm replied as he stood up, massaging his head from where it had hit the floor. He pressed a COMM button and called for his security team to come along and help with the task. Within a few minutes all three Suliban were securely locked down in the brig.

By this time Travis and Hoshi had woken up. With orders from Archer, Travis scanned for the Suliban ship, but couldn't locate it. Both Trip and Archer concluded that they must've run off knowing that their attempt to destroy Enterprise had failed.

Archer had noticed the way that T'Pol had fallen, half on, half off her chair. And just like Trip, he had wished he'd had a camera with him. It just so happened that he did have one in his ready room which Trip fetched, and being the onboard photographer Trip to the photo, hoping to one day make T'Pol look like a bit of a fool. It was clever timing because only seconds after Trip took the photo T'Pol regained consciousness.

Archer turned to see Trip and Trix hugging again, the main reason being so that Trip could hide the camera by placing his arm around Trix's waist. "You'd better get her sickbay. Get Phlox to make sure she's gonna be all right."

"Aye sir." Trip nodded and moved over to the turbolift with Trix, being very careful not to let the Vulcan see what was in his hands. T'Pol watched his movements and became slightly suspicious that he was trying to hide something from her, but she didn't question it.

"Travis. Set a course for Earth. Warp 6."

"Aye sir." Travis responded with a smile, happy to make the ship jump to warp 6.

Archer patted Travis' shoulder and then sat down in his own chair pressing the COMM button as he did. "Bridge to Engineering, be prepared to go to warp 6."

&&&&&

Doctor Phlox had never seen anyone so happy to be in sickbay. Trix was being the perfect patient, no complaints and even asking him to perform more tests than were necessary.

Nearing the end of Trix's examination Archer walked in, anxious to know how she was. He smiled seeing that she was having a bit of a joke with Trip.

"What's the verdict?"

Phlox turned to face Archer after placing a scanner on the table. "She's perfectly healthy. All her cells have mended. There's no trace that she even had the cellular breakdown. She'll be able to lead a normal life as long as she stays relatively close to Commander Tucker." Those were just the words both Archer and Trip wanted to hear. Both men had grown quite attached to the young girl.

Archer nodded with satisfaction "That's good to hear."

"Captain?"

Archer looked at where the voice was coming from. Trix was staring at him, her happy expression now gone.

"What's going to happen with me?"

Archer sighed slightly and moved nearer to the child. "I'll have to talk with Admiral Forrest, but under the circumstances I think it's fairly safe to say that your home will now be Enterprise."

"With the information I've collected about the cellular breakdown they'll have to keep you both together." Phlox added.

"And I don't particularly wanna leave En'erprise." Trip replied. He loved the ship. He loved the engine.

Trix turned her head to look at Trip. She smiled and hugged him.

Archer could tell that now, whenever Trip looked at Trix he saw a daughter, and whenever Trix looked at Trip, she saw a father.

"How exactly did you manage to find me so fast?" Trix asked. Looking between Archer and Trip for a response.

"We got the engine working to warp 6, with no problem."

"You did?" Trix face grew into one of surprise with a smile. Trip just nodded.

"We're currently travelling at warp 6 so we can talk to Admiral Forrest sooner."

"Bridge to Captain Archer." Hoshi's voice came through over the ship's intercom.

Archer sighed a little and moved over to a COMM panel. "Archer here."

"Sir… we're getting a call from Admiral Forest. He sounds pretty angry."

"Patch him through to my quarters. I'll be there in a minute."

"Aye sir."

Archer moved over to the main doors of sickbay and left.

Nothing more was heard from the captain for a couple of hours.

After finishing up in sickbay Trix and Trip headed off the mess hall and managed to find a couple of slices of Pecan pie. They concluded chef must've known that that's what they would have wanted and made sure he had some prepared.

They had just finished eating when Captain Archer walked in and sat down at the table with them.

"What did he say?" Trip asked.

"He's eager to meet Trix."

"But… and I gonna stay on Enterprise?"

"Of course." Archer replied with a light grin. Both Trip and Trix smiled. "Once I'd explained about the cellular breakdown and sent him some of the scans Phlox had taken he couldn't argue with the fact that you have to stay with Trip."

"That's great news Cap'n."

"It sure is Trip… although I'll have to warn chef to make sure there's more pecan pie than usual."

The three friends laughed at Archer's comment.

**A/N: Thanks for all the reviews guys. I hope you liked the ending. More stories will come soon.**


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